Last week (September 27-29), NOAA hosted the AGES workshop, a large coordination workshop focused on field measurements of urban and marine atmospheric composition that will take place during summer 2023. AGES gets its name from the acronyms of the 4 major field efforts it includes: AEROMMA (NOAA), GOTHAAM (NSF), EPCAPE (DOE) and STAQS (NASA) and has been an important convening platform for several other community assets and capabilities that will join NOAA in the field, thus yielding a larger and more coordinated AGES effort. The workshop pursued the following objectives:
- Coordinate science objective across interagency interests with updated scientific knowledge (field efforts were postponed 2 years due to COVID)
- Provide a platform to discuss the science goals for all the different activities occurring during summer and identify overlapping science goals
- Increase collaboration both logistically and scientifically across the different campaigns
- Increase collaboration between researchers collecting the measurements and researchers using the measurements for model and/or satellite evaluation
- Increase collaboration between researchers and environmental managers/stakeholders
The workshop was highly successful in meeting its objectives, as many opportunities for collaboration and instrument sharing were identified throughout the meeting. About 100 people attended the workshop in person, with about 70 joining online. NOAA’s participation in the workshop spanned several OAR laboratories (CSL, GML, GSL and ARL) and NESDIS. Local and regional stakeholders included NESCAUM and New York City’s Department of Health.
With the AGES workshop as the first step, coordination of 2023 field measurements and subsequent analysis will continue over the next few months, as several large and small aircrafts, ground sites, mobile laboratories and satellite instruments will be collecting data in cities across the US, with the largest focus on New York City and Los Angeles. As the largest participant, NOAA is expected to lead the coordination effort. The Climate Program Office’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) and Earth’s Radiation Budget (ERB) programs sponsored the workshop and will provide ongoing support for AGES’ coordination efforts.
AGES’ 2023 field efforts are expected to advance scientific knowledge of still relatively new compounds emitted from household products (such as cleaning agents and personal care products) that are contributing to ozone and other air quality challenges in urban air. Other science objectives include assessing the impact of extreme heat on air quality, improved understanding of marine sulfur, and validation of the new geostationary satellite data, among others.
More information at: https://csl.noaa.gov/events/ages2022/
CPO Staff who attended the workshop: Monika Kopacz (AC4 Program Manager), Shiv Das (AC4 Program Specialist), Greg Frost (ERB Initiative Manager), Victoria Breeze (ERB Program Manager).
